CAGLAR YILDIRIM

I am a faculty member in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, where I direct the Mixed Reality Lab. I am also a Research Scientist in the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I work in the Center for Advanced Virtuality and design, develop, and evaluate immersive experiences to raise awareness on racial bias and discrimination. I received my PhD in Human Computer Interaction from Iowa State University (ISU) in 2017. Prior to joining Northeastern in Fall 2019, I was a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at State University of New York at Oswego (2017-2019), where I directed the Virtual Reality Lab and taught in the HCI graduate program.


My current research is in the areas of HCI and immersive environments, striving to apply HCI principles to the design, development, and evaluation of 3D interfaces to support and improve human interactions with virtual/augmented/mixed reality environments. Currently, my research projects revolve around

  • designing and evaluating 3D interaction techniques for immersive environments;
  • studying human factors issues (e.g., cybersickness) in immersive environments and using this knowledge to resolve these issues;
  • and using machine learning techniques to quantify immersive user experiences through physiological measures.

My previous research on nomophobia, or no-mobile-phone phobia, which could be defined as smartphone separation anxiety, has been featured in various media channels in the US, including, among others, CNN, Today Show, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Fox News.

Publications

[JA]: Journal Article     |    [CP]: Conference Proceedings    |    [SP]: Short Paper   |    [WP]: Workshop Paper    |     [BC]: Book Chapter
*: Asterisks denote student co-authors

2021

  • *Saffo, D., *Di Bartolomeo, S., Yildirim, C., & Dunne, C. (2021, in press). Remote and Collaborative Virtual Reality Experiments via Social VR Platforms. In Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, (CHI 2021), Yokohama, Japan. [CP]

  • *Saffo, D., *Di Bartolomeo, S., Yildirim, C., & Dunne, C. (2021, in press). Two Paths Towards the Future of Remote Studies using Social VR. In Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Workshop on Remote XR Studies, (CHI 2021), Yokohama, Japan. [WP]

  • Carroll, M. , & Yildirim, C. & (2021, in press). The Effect of Body-Based Haptic Feedback on Player Experience during VR Gaming.In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on HCI (HCI 2021). [CP]


2020

  • Yildirim, C. (2020). A Review of Deep Learning Approaches to EEG-Based Classification of Cybersickness in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (IEEE AIVR 2020). [SP]

  • Yildirim, C. & O'Grady, T. (2020). The Efficacy of a Virtual Reality-Based Mindfulness Intervention. In Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (IEEE AIVR 2020). [CP]

  • Yildirim, C. (2020). Don’t make me sick: investigating the incidence of cybersickness in commercial virtual reality headsets. Virtual Reality, 1-9. [JA]

  • *Saffo, D., *Di Bartolomeo, S., Yildirim, C., & Dunne, C. (2020). Crowdsourcing Virtual Reality Experiments using VRChat. In Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Late-Breaking Work, (CHI LBW 2020), Honolulu, HI. [SP]

  • *Saffo, D., *Di Bartolomeo, S., Yildirim, C., & Dunne, C. (2020). Two Dimensions for Organizing Immersive Analytics: Toward a Taxonomy for Facet and Position. In Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Workshop on Immersive Analytics, (IA 2020), Honolulu, HI. [WP]

  • Yildirim, C., & *Osborne, E. & (2020). Text Entry in Virtual Reality: A Comparison of 2D and 3D Keyboard Layouts. HCI International 2020 - Late Breaking Work HCII 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science [SP]


2019

  • Yildirim, C. (2019). Cybersickness during VR gaming undermines game enjoyment: A mediation model. Displays, 59, 35-43.[JA]

  • *Carroll, M., *Osborne, E. & Yildirim, C. (2019). Effects of Virtual Reality Gaming and Game Genre on Player Experience. In Proceedings of IEEE Games, Entertainment, and Media 2019 (IEEE GEM 2019), New Haven, CT. [CP]

  • *Hufnal, D., *Johnson, T., *Osborne, E., Yildirim, C. (2019). The Impact of Controller Type on Video Game User Experience in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of IEEE Games, Entertainment, and Media 2019 (IEEE GEM 2019), New Haven, CT. [CP]

  • *O’Grady, T., & Yildirim, C. (2019). The Potential of Spatial Computing to Augment Memory: Investigating Recall in Virtual Memory Palaces. In: Stephanidis C. (eds) HCI International 2019 - Posters. HCII 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science , vol 1033 (pp. 414-422). Springer, Cham. [BC]

  • Elhai, J. D., Rozgonjuk, D., Yildirim, C., Alghraibeh, A. M., & Alafnan, A. A. (2019). Worry and anger are associated with latent classes of problematic smartphone use severity among college students. Journal of Affective Disorders, 246, 209-216. [JA]


2018

  • Yildirim, C., *Carroll, M., *Hufnal, D., *Johnson, T., & *Pericles, S. (2018). Video Game User Experience: To VR, or Not to VR?. In Proceedings of IEEE Games, Entertainment, and Media 2018 (IEEE GEM 2018), Galway, Ireland. [CP]

  • *Bang, E., & Yildirim, C. (2018). Virtually Empathetic?: Examining the Effects of Virtual Reality Storytelling on Empathy. In Proceedings of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality 2018, Las Vegas, NE. [CP]

  • Yildirim, C., & Dark, V. J. (2018). The Mediating Role of Mindfulness in the Relationship between Media Multitasking and Mind Wandering. In Proceedings of Technology, Mind, and Society 2018, ACM, Washington, DC. [CP]

  • Adawi, M., Bragazzi, N. L., Argumosa-Villar, L., Boada-Grau, J., Vigil-Colet, A., Yildirim, C., ... & Watad, A. (2018). Translation and Validation of the Nomophobia Questionnaire in the Italian Language: Exploratory Factor Analysis. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 6(1), e24. [JA]


2017 and before

  • Yildiz, M., Ocak, N., Yildirim, C., Cagiltay, K., & Babaoglu, C. (2016). Usability in local e-government: Analysis of Turkish metropolitan municipality Facebook pages. International Journal of Public Administration in the Digital Age, 3(1). [JA]

  • Yildirim, C., Sumuer, E., Adnan, M., & Yildirim, S. (2016). A growing fear: Prevalence of nomophobia among Turkish college students. Information Development, 32(5), 1322-1331. [JA]

  • Yildirim, C., & Corriea, A.-P. (2015). Exploring the Dimensions of Nomophobia: Development and Validation of a Self-Reported Questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 130-137. [JA]

  • Yildirim, C., & Correia, A. P. (2015). Understanding Nomophobia: A Modern Age Phobia among College Students. In Proceedings of the 17 International Conference on Human Computer Interaction (HCI Int'l 2015), Los Angeles, CA. [CP]

  • Yildirim, C., Park, M., Lawson, T., Jaramillo, N., Correia, A.-P., Chatterjee, R., & Arpaci, P. (2015). Training Instructional Designers as Edupreneurs. In Proceedings of Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2014 Convention. Jacksonville, FL. [CP]

  • Jin, Y., Chatterjee, R., Yildirim, C., Arpaci, P., Juvale, D., Elliott, M., ... & Karakaya, K. (2015, March). Behind the Scenes: The Symbiotic Workflow in Creating a Higher Education Online Course. In Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference, Las Vegas, NV. [CP]


Manuscripts In-Submission/Preparation

  • Yildirim, C. (2021). Effects of Multimodal Feedback on 3D Text Entry Performance in Virtual Reality. Manuscript in preparation for submission to an HCI journal [JA]

  • Yildirim, C. (2021). EEG-based Classification of Cybersickness Levels during VR Gaming. A Machine Learning Approach. Manuscript in submission to a VR Conference [CP]

Teaching

I am genuinely intrigued by the idea of contributing to academic development of future CS and HCI professionals, who will be designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating the next generation of information and communication technologies with which people will interact. By disseminating my knowledge and expertise through teaching, I hope to have an impact on the way future technologies are introduced to our lives, and I wish to instill a human-centered mindset in my students so that they are mindful of their target audience throughout their career. In so doing, I think my teaching can cause a ripple effect, and the ripples I may cause through my students are what excites me about teaching HCI!

Following is a list of courses I have been teaching at my current and previous institutions.



CS5340 Human Computer Interaction

Northeastern University

This course covers the principles of human-computer interaction and the design and evaluation of user interfaces. Topics include an overview of human information processing subsystems (perception, memory, attention, and problem solving); how the properties of these systems affect the design of user interfaces; the principles, guidelines, and specification languages for designing good user interfaces; and a variety of interface evaluation methodologies that can be used to measure the usability of software.

Fall 2020

DS 3000 Foundations of Data Science

Northeastern University

Data Science is a field of inquiry concerned with the study and application of systematically extracting generalizable knowledge from data and using this knowledge to draw useful and educated conclusions. This course is an introductory DS class focusing on the foundations of DS as an emerging field. The course introduces core modern DS tools and methods that provide a foundation for subsequent DS classes. As a skills-based course, DS 3000 will cover the use of Python for DS and will introduce some of the widely-used essential Python libraries, such as NumPy, pandas, matplotlib, and scikit-learn. More specifically, this class covers working with tensors and applied linear algebra in standard numerical computing libraries (e.g., NumPy); loading, processing, and integrating data from a variety of structured and unstructured sources using Python libraries (e.g., pandas), visualizing data using basic techniques and tools (e.g., matplotlib/seaborn); applying introductory concepts in probability, statistics, and machine learning using Python libraries (e.g., scikit-learn); and using a standard DS tool (e.g., Jupyter Notebook).

Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020

CS 3540 Game Programming

Northeastern University

This course introduces the different subsystems used to create a 3D game, including rendering, animation, collision, physics, audio, trigger systems, game logic, behavior trees, and simple artificial intelligence. It also offers students an opportunity to learn the inner workings of game engines and how to use multiple libraries such as physics and graphics libraries to develop a game for various platforms. The class will particularly cover game development for Mixed Reality environments, in addition to traditional gaming platforms.

Spring 2020

HCI 511 Advanced Quantitative Methods

SUNY Oswego

This course is an advanced research methods and statistics class focusing on the application of quantitative research methods and statistical analyses in the design, analysis, and dissemination of HCI experiments. Building on HCI 509, this class provides an in-depth coverage of complex experimental designs and data analysis techniques, varying from factorial ANOVAs to applied machine learning approaches to experimental data analysis.

Spring 2019

HCI 509 Research Methods and Statistics

SUNY Oswego

As a naturally interdisciplinary field of inquiry, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) incorporates multiple disciplines, varying from psychology to computer science. While the beauty of HCI research resides in its interdisciplinary focus, the diversity of research methods employed by HCI researchers and practitioners coming from different backgrounds can sometimes be bewildering, because each field of inquiry has its own standards for measurement, validity, and rigor. This can be even more challenging when it comes to conducting research studies involving human participants, which is ostensibly very common in HCI research. In an attempt to address these challenges, this course is designed to provide an introduction to the various research methods and data analysis techniques commonly utilized in HCI research, with a particular focus on the foundations of behavioral research and experimental studies.

Fall 2018

HCI 505 Human Factors

SUNY Oswego

Human Factors (HF) is a truly interdisciplinary discipline that is closely linked to the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Drawing upon the broad scientific knowledgebase in human behavior, capabilities, and limitations, HF professionals seek to apply psychological principles to the design, development, and evaluation of human-computer systems, with the goal of making the interaction between people and technology more effective, more efficient, easier to learn, more intuitive, more enjoyable, etc. This course is designed to help you master these HF principles, guidelines, and practices.

Fall 2017, 2018

HCI 530 Mind and Technology

SUNY Oswego

Digital technologies permeate every aspect of our lives. With increasing dependence on technology have arisen concerns over the putative effects of technology on how humans think, feel, and behave. Is Google making us stupid or smarter? Do we remember more or less if we rely too much on our smartphones? Are habitual media multitaskers more susceptible to distractions and mind wandering? In this graduate research seminar, we review, reflect on, and critique empirical studies investigating the influence of technology on human mind and cognition. Example topics include smartphones, attention, and distraction, cognitive offloading, technology use and memory, pathological technology use, and positive, affective technology.

Fall 2018

HCI 510 UX Design and Evaluation Methods

SUNY Oswego

This course provides students with a detailed introduction to the methodologies used in the design and evaluation of user experiences and human computer interfaces as well as research in HCI. These methodologies permit the evaluation of user needs, comparisons of design alternatives, the evaluation of existing products, and basic research in HCI. This course was designed to help students realize that UX engineering is an ongoing process throughout the entire product lifecycle and that developing the human-computer interface is not something to be done at the last minute, when the rest of the system is finished.

Spring 2018, 2019

HCI 530 Virtual Reality

SUNY Oswego

Virtual reality (VR) is a cutting-edge technology that has numerous applications in HCI, along with other fields. Given the hype around VR, it is easy to jump on the VR bandwagon for many people without critically thinking about its scientific merit. HCI researchers, on the other hand, need to be knowledgeable about scientific research studies regarding the feasibility, viability, and efficaciousness of VR in various HCI domains. To that end, this course seeks to expose you to the primary concepts, methods, and applications of VR in HCI research. As a graduate seminar, this course will provide you with a strong background in the applications of VR in HCI research through weekly readings, in-class discussions, and a semester-long VR project.

Spring 2018

HCI/PSYCH 522 Scientific Methods in HCI

Iowa State University

As a naturally interdisciplinary field of inquiry, HCI incorporates multiple disciplines, varying from psychology to computer science. While the beauty of HCI research resides in its interdisciplinary focus, the diversity of research methods employed by HCI researchers and practitioners coming from different backgrounds can sometimes be bewildering, because each field of inquiry has its own standards for measurement, validity, and rigor. This can be even more challenging when it comes to conducting research studies involving human participants, which is ostensibly very common in HCI research. In an attempt to address these challenges, this course is designed to provide an introduction to the various research methods and data analysis techniques commonly utilized in HCI research, with a particular focus on the foundations of behavioral research and experimental studies.

Spring 2017

HCI 591 Seminar on UX Research Methods

Iowa State University

This graduate seminar provides a survey of UX research methods, with a special emphasis on the practical application of various methods.

Fall 2016

Nomophobia

I am humbled by the scholarly interest in using the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) in research studies. Please feel free to use the NMP-Q in your research studies without seeking permission. You can access the relevant articles under Publications. You can also download the questionnaire, along with the scoring guide, below.


  • NMP-Q English Version
  • NMP-Q Turkish Version
  • NMP-Q Italian Version

Press

* Not an exhaustive list

KSL TV

What parents don't know about social media use, as explained by teens (VIEW)
March 2018

CNN

Smartphone addiction could be changing your brain (VIEW)
December 2017

Washington Post

Want to charge your phone at the bar? You may have to pay, one way or another. (VIEW)
March 2016

Science Daily

Can't put your phone down? Are You a Nomophobe? (VIEW)
August 2015

Fox News

Are you ‘addicted’ to your smartphone? (VIEW)
June 2015

Today Show

Smartphone separation anxiety: How bad is your nomophobia? (VIEW)
May 2015

Washington Post

Why you shouldn’t confuse ‘nomophobia’ with an actual addiction to smartphones (VIEW)
May 2015

Huffington Post

This Scientific Test Will Tell You How Addicted You Are To Your Smartphone (VIEW)
May 2015